Outlander star Sam Heughan to make stage comeback in Macbeth

The Herald Scotland

2 days ago

Heughan will appear alongside Lia Williams, star of The Crown, His Dark Materials and the Missing, in what is being described as "an intimate and compelling" RSC production.
The show, which will be directed by Daniel Raggett, will get a two-month run at the RSC's 200-seater venue, The Other Place, in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Read more:
Heughan, who started filming Outlander in 2013, will be following in the footsteps of fellow Scots Alan Cumming, David Tennant, James McAvoy and Reuben Joseph, who have both played the role in recent years.
Heughan, who will be appearing in Macbeth from October 9-December 6, has spoken previously of his admiration for McAvoy's theatre performances.
Outlander star Sam Heughan will be making a return to the stage in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Macbeth this autumn. Picture: Sony/Starz
Other actors who have starred in previous RSC productions of Macbeth include Ralph Richadson, Laurence Olivier, Ian McKellen, Bob Peck, Derek Jacobi, Anthony Sher and Greg Hicks.
Heughan, who was born in Balmacellan, in Dumfries and Galloway, moved to Edinburgh when he was 12 and joined the youth theatre group run by the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh before securing a place at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.
He was still studying when he landed a lead role in the David Greig play Outlying Islands which won a Herald Angel Award at the 2002 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Heughan was nominated for the most promising newcomer honour at the Olivier Awards after the play transferred to the Royal Court Theatre in London.
Heughan would go on to make theatre appearances across the UK over the next decade, including playing the role of Malcolm in Macbeth at the Royal Lyceum in Edinburgh, as well as productions of Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet.
Heughan had his first major TV role in 2004 when he appeared in the mini-series Island at War and had a recurring role in the BBC soap Doctors for 21 episodes.
However he was a relative unknown until 2013, when he was cast as Jamie Fraser in the Sony-Starz adaptation of American author Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books.
Heughan and co-star Caitriona Balfa recently finished filming their final scenes for the eighth and last series of the show.
Speaking previously to The Cultural Coven podcast, Heughan spoke of his passion for Shakespeare's work and his ambitions to return to the theatre.
He said at the time: 'Jamie Fraser has obviously been brilliant and I've been doing a number of film roles to try to play other parts, but they've all been primarily in the same sort of realm.
'I'd love to have a real acting challenge - I think that's where you get to really stretch yourself.
'Outlander has been so unique. My character has been a young warrior, who has become a laird, a father, a husband and a grandfather now, he's been in battles, he's been abused... I've had so much to play.
'But of course we all get burn-out and want to do different things.
'I'd love to go back to theatre. I have been talking to various people.
'It's about scheduling and that's kind of tough right now with the film schedule I've got, but in the future, I'd love to.
'For me, it's always been about Shakespeare. I'd love to do Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth.'
In a separate interview with the Square Mile podcast, Heughan said: 'I started in theatre, I'd love to go back to theatre.
'I recently saw James McAvoy in Cyrano and he was brilliant. I know James from drama school and he was my mentor. I saw him onstage at drama school and to see him there is kind of an amazing journey. I feel like I've got it in me as well.'